Get In My Garden

Today we meet Jordan Mara of Mind and Soil. He will discuss his company mission, how gardening can be one of the best activities for our mental health, some of the research into specific soil microbes that help our brains and so much more. This is a very exciting and inspiring episode, and Jordan shares about following his bliss to start Mind and Soil, details on how to be involved with his free online workshops, and at the end we dive into the four components of attention restoration theory, which I found very interesting!

This is the second part of the interview with Judy Fitzpatrick of Microbiometer. Today we deep dive into microbiology and the workings of the microbial marketplace. We discuss the current state of research, the balance between competition and cooperation of soil microbes, and the environmental influences on these microbes. Then we discuss what some of the cannabis growers are doing to foster microbial balance and why they love growing in soil. Judy shares how the stress response affects flavor and texture of plants and finally what’s going on with carbon and the soil. Thanks for listening to the Get in My Garden Podcast. Please subscribe wherever you listen from and if you want to support the show, please take a moment to leave a positive review on iTunes or elsewhere. It really helps with rankings. Follow on instagram @getinmygarden and check back in spring for a new blog format on the website, getinmygarden.com where you can also sign up for the newsletter blast.

Today we meet Judy Fitzpatrick, cofounder of Microbiometer.  The first few minutes of this episode, Judy shares her back story, her history in medical diagnostics and then about cofounding soil microbial biomass measurement company, Microbiometer. Judy shares about the distinctions of different available types of soil testing on the market, which is very enlightening. She explains the process by which scientists breed and study bacteria in the lab setting to create strains with a specific purpose for the garden, or for medicine. Then we dive more into microbiology, how bacteria breed, how their DNA gets shared around as they adapt to their environment, and so much more. We learn how to understand the ratio of different fungi and bacteria, how to use this information to gain an ideal soil structure, and how it all works at the microbial level. Thanks for listening to the Get in My Garden Podcast. Please subscribe wherever you listen from and if you want to support the show, please take a moment to leave a positive review on iTunes and elsewhere. It really helps with rankings. Follow on instagram @getinmygarden and check back early spring for a new blog format on the website, getinmygarden.com where you can also sign up for the newsletter blast.

Today we meet Leo Horrigan, a documentary filmmaker with the Center for a Livable Future at John’s Hopkins University. He is helping us understand the food system from farming to food access, and creating educational programs around their research. We learn the five most important components to look at as we repair our food system. Leo shares about a lot more including how farming and carbon will always be linked and about how we are studying the prairies and soil to make sure we can restore and unlock the potential of soil.

Today we meet Hunter Buffington, Executive Director of the Hemp Feed Coalition. We talk hemp as an animal feed, why it isn’t legal for animal feed yet, some of the roadblocks in the US and Canada, and how the Hemp Feed Coalition is working to change this. Then Hunter shares details about cannabis plant byproducts, many of these potentially being animal feed. We learn a few specific ways that the listeners can be involved with progressing the agenda of the Hemp Feed Coalition Directly. Then we hear details about clinical feed trials that need to take place, and some of the current research about bioaccumulation in the cannabis plant. Hemp is sure to change the nutritional makeup of the food we eat and offers promise for carbon sequestration and regenerative farming. At the end of the interview, Hunter mentions some of the amazing technology being created now using hemp byproducts, and then finally where she thinks the hemp market is headed in the next 10 to 20 years. Follow this podcast on instagram @getinmygarden, send me an email, [email protected] and subscribe wherever you listen from!

This is the second half of the interview with Nina Folch of Compost Santo. She shares about why she likes composting in the winter, how she looks at microbes in the microscope, and some of the realities of running a Soil Food Web Lab as a career.

Today we meet Nina Folch of Compost Santo located in Northern New Mexico. She is a student of the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham and others, and I’m so grateful to her for sharing so openly about the composting business she manages, the things she most loves about this work, and some of the challenges they have faced while the business has grown over three years. IF you are interested in composting as a business and are are interested in the details of running such an operation, this is an episode for you! I learned a lot from Nina and will feature the rest of our interview ASAP once it’s completed. This episode is published on the first Monday of the year, happy new year, and I hope you have all have had a chance to look to the future and do some planning. Now is actually a great time to start composting. in preparation for spring.

I’ve been wanting to have an show for a while about the benefits of getting children back into nature. I recently read, Last Child In the Woods, now a classic book from 15 years ago about nature-deficit in children. If you have younger kids in your life, today’s interview is with Jenny Bailey co-creator and author of a new book series for younger children, including a soundtrack which is featured at the intro to this episode. The series is called, Tales from Mother Earth, and Jenny will be talking today about their first book which is about bees, then she will share about their educational initiatives in the UK and their mission to empower younger people to become passionate and responsible stewards of the earth. But before our interview, I will review another new book, a graphic adaptation, and it is a graphic novel adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Edward O Wilson. For those of you who haven’t read his books including his most recent Tales from the Ant World, he is an amazing and fascinating adventurer, a researcher, biologist and entomologist who has been a staple at Harvard University since the 1950s. 

This is Episode 75 with John Craig the master composter who runs grassroots nonprofit, We Compost, located inside the Farm and Food Lab in the Great Park at Irvine, California. John tells us how to get started in composting, some basic methods to try, and some of the experiments they are doing with worms and composting at the Farm and Food Lab. Then he shares the components of good composting and about his composting symbol that he has created for people to use while promoting and normalizing composting and compostable products. Later, we discuss the basics of how to deal with specific composting issues and two book recommendations for vermicomposting and understanding the soil food web. Finally, John shares how to find the right local worms that will thrive in your soil, wherever you are located.

Today we learn from Tom Marrero of Wakefield BioChar. He shares the background and history of biochar, plus the research and background that led him to start his family business. For those of you excited for a composting specific episode again, I promise that will come soon. So what exactly is biochar, what can it do and what can it not do? Tom tells us all of this and why it is used for soil health and remediation. The last portion is about the different types of biochar and the process of making it, and understanding the overall sustainability of biochar. Reach out to me anytime to connect @getinmygarden on Instagram, or leave a note on the website, getinmygarden.com, or stalk me on facebook.  Also, if you do go to my website, it’s pretty basic, but you can sign up for the newsletter easily there. I have barely sent anything out, but I will send interesting articles and supplemental content through the emails, as well as news about Get In My Garden, and promos when possible.